Kawase Hasui

1883-1957

Collection of the Theater Photo Album: Vol. 4 (5 issues)
(Engei shashin cho: dai yon maki)

each with lithograph covers and frontispieces by various artists; the collection includes: April and June issue with cover and frontispiece by Natori Shunsen, September issue with cover and frontispiece by Ito Shinsui, and October and December issue with cover by Kawase Hasui and frontispiece by Ito Shinsui, 1925

each magazine approximately 8 3/4 by 11 3/4 in., 22.3 by 30 cm

Each frontispiece is numbered within the series Sanju-rokunin kashu (Collection of Thirty-six Anthologies.) Volume 4 includes 12 issues that start with sono ichi (no.1) The actors and their roles include: April cover with actor Ichikawa Chusha as (Toneri) Matsuomaru, frontispiece with Nakamura Kichiemon as Kumagai (Jiro) Naizane; June cover with actor Ichikawa Sumizo as Shirai Gonpachi, frontispiece with Nakamura Ganjiro as Soga (Juro) Sukenari; September cover with actor Onoe Kikugoro as Adachi Ganemon, frontispiece with Nakamura Fukusuke of Narikomaya as Tokihime; October cover with actor Matsumoto Koshiro as Shibaraku, frontispiece with Nakamura Shikaku as Hatsugiku; December cover with actor Nakamura Utaemon as Tonase, frontispiece with Onoe Baiko as Izayoi.

During a period which began in late 1925 through 1927, Hasui broke away from the landscape format which had become his specialty and produced designs for the kabuki magazine Engei Shashincho (Theater Photo Album), sometimes producing both the cover and frontispiece for an issue, other times one or the other along with designs by contemporaries such as Natori Shunsen (1886-1960), the artist who specialized in kabuki subjects in the circle of publisher Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962).

References:
Kendall Brown, Water and Shadow: Kawase Hasui and Japanese Landscape Prints, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2014, p. 11, cat. III.19 (Onoe Kikunosuke II as Young Kamuro, Tayori, cover illustration for Engei shashincho, March 1927)

(inv. no. C-3239a)

price: $1,250